Lowering CC Limits, help getting my credit back on track

thebazman

Hi All,

Wonder if you guys could give me some advice, quick background, i changed jobs toward the end of last year and i missed a few payments so i phoned my RBS Credit Card to make an arrangement for a few months as i had a start date for a job but not for another 3 months.

obviously this has had some effect on my credit rating although my accounts have been back in line since December 07.

i recently took out a loan with Lloyds to pay off all my cards, question is do i pay them all off or pay some, keep some etc?

this is what i have

RBS 1,151 balance with 2,200 limit
EGG 961 balance with 1,000 limit
BARCLAYCARD 560 balance with 850 limit (0% till July)
JJB Store card recently paid off in full 750 limit

im thinking cancel the JJB card, keep the barclaycard until the 0% is up
the RBS card is where i had the problems so should i keep a small balance on it so that it builds up more months of good record before clearing it and closing it.

the only one i wanted to keep is egg as i use their website to easily get into all my online banking accounts, but ive heard they are closing peoples accounts that dont have any balance on it.

so my goal here is to improve my rating, which last month was "fair" - 374/500 from Equifax and id like to apply for a 0% on purchases card, possibly the HSBC for 12 months, i'll only need the 1 credit card at that point.

can i get my limits lowered? so it doesnt seem that i have as much available credit?

sorry for the long post, and thanks so much in advance for your suggestions,
Barrie

emma396

you could, but i'm not sure it'd make a huge difference. closing the JJB card is good. on the RBS card would u lower limit to 1600?

Moggles_2

I'm thinking cancel the JJB card, keep the Barclaycard until the 0% is up.
The RBS card is where I had the problems, so should I keep a small balance on it so that it builds up more months of good record before clearing it and closing it?

Sounds good to me.

Can I get my limits lowered, so it doesn't seem that I have as much available credit?

Your limits are modest already, so I would leave well alone and concentrate on the above plan

Toastie

thebazman wrote: »

i recently took out a loan with Lloyds to pay off all my cards, question is do i pay them all off or pay some, keep some etc?

I don't wish to sound a bit mean here but ... surely applying for a Virgin Card and doing an SBT would of been a better option? MBNA have the highest rates and i'm fairly sure you would have had a limit of around £2500-£3000 as long as you cancelled the JJB card.

Can you pay back the lloyds loan early? If so this might be an option, it would be interest free for 15months. By paying off the minimum each month you could keep any left over money (even any from the balance transfer if you had any spare) in to a high interest ISA (if your a tax payer) and earnt interest.

Then a month before the Virgin card expires withdraw the ISA and pay off as much as you could on the Virgin Card.

I know it's long winded and i hope it doesn't sound too snotty or nasty!

thebazman

Thanks everyone for your comments, dont sound mean at all i welcome any comments or advice you have.

if i could explain the loan part a bit more it was the only way i could see paying off the cash and freeing up some spare cash,

i already had a lloyds loan i took out over a year ago which had about 5k left on it, i was paying monthly payments of 151.00, this new loan refinanced this and the extra cash for credit cards with a little left over, for monthly payment of 222.01 at 11.9% APR, so the total cash loan is just over 10k. i dont think there was anything else i could have done there and get the monthly payments that low as that about all i can afford at my present salary after rent, bills, travel it only leaves me about 200 quid per month for food and to live on.

if theres anything else you can advise i could do please let me know, or do you think i am on track with what im doing at the moment?

thanks

CLAPTON

advice without full information is pretty worthless...
your post started with debts of about 4k but it now appears you owe in total 14k?

I'ld suggest you go over to the debt free wanabee board , read the stickie for newbees and post up a full SOA

thebazman

Clapton, well thats a fair comment but as is the title of the post, my question was really just relating to the cards, would lowering their limits help and which ones to keep or not pay off in full to build up better history as ive only had 1 slight blip.

i was quite happy with the loan side of things and given my monthly budget has worked out well for me, until i get a better job and more monhtly income, haha
i ofcourse welcome any advice, i just wanted to let Toastie know why i did what i did.

but i take your point i should explained everything at the start. thanks